The Emporia weekly news. [volume] (Emporia, Kan.) 1881-1889, 1887-07-21
VOL. 3O.--NO %

IKE wall 10 separate these TWO
And gloomy looks and tears bring
no relief. They only serve to chill his
waning love.
Deeper and deeper grows the shad-
ow, colder and colder grows his love,
until-one day comes the end. Wearied
of her gloom and tears he speaks his
sharp reproaches, and they part in
bitter anger. He goes off to the city
and she sits nursing her dull heart
ache all day long.
Evening comes, but he does not re-
turn. She watches and listens. but he
does not come. She will not break
her fast or quench her thirst: but he
does not come. She hears the trains
come laundering in and La 'kens for
his footstep, but she hears no sound.
Qu;eter and quieter it grows. She
waits for the midnight train. She
watches at the gate, watches the road
as far as she can see in the cloudy at
mosphere.
She whispers his name over and
over, "Francis, Francis" and pleads
with him to come to her once more.
Il will never speak impatiently again,
never weary You, if you will only
come" she saws. "Only come, Francis,
my love, my all!'
There is a great agony in her cry;
but he does not come. The last train
is in. There are no more trains till
morning. Why does not the morning
come? Oh, why? She filings herself
upon the earth and grovels in her
terror and suspense. Francis, my
love, my lovei Only come back to
mew
And dawn breaks and the sun is
risen, and happy day smiles upon the
earth. But he has not returned.
Tho servant CGnS ahOnf the hOnSa
singing careless song. Does the SER
want know the mistress agony?
Toward noon the servant goes down
to the village postoffice and presently
returns with letter.
Give it to me" the mistress says,
her face whittier than the white sails on
the distant water.
She is cold and dead at heart. She
knows his handwriting. She must
read and-live or die.
The words must burn through her
eyes and fire her brain. Yet she does
not cry out or fall swooning. She
only reads and reads again his cold
farewell.
Better for us to part at once.
We have made mistake. . Before
reading this you will have heard of
your husbands suicide. You drove
him to it. He was a good husband to
you and you deceived him. We might
live on together even now, when love
is dead, but you could hardly expect
me to respect you, knowing your crime
towards him. For my part am
heartily sorry.
The servant had gone away, and the
woman who read this fell down on her
face upon the floor.
''Godr' she cried huskily; "my crime!
He told me what to do. He urged me
he implored. 1t was for his sake
that sinned, and now he turns to
taunt mew
She had cried her last strength of
passion out with these few husky
| words. Now she lay silent for a
time. It was the end. She saw that
his love was dead and he could not re-
spect her. She would not have him
come back to her now, not for all the
| wealth of the universe. She would
not have him back. But how to live
without him? How to live, to think,
/ to breathe? How TO keep from Shrek
| ing to heaven to let her die?
Francis loved her no longer. The
| end had come. 1t was Nemesis. She
had wronged her husband; that hus-
| bands death avenged the wrong. All
was over, and welcome death at any
| hour.
| The afternoon had dragged to its
close; the sun had set, and a soft breeze
| stirred the glorious trees in the road.
Twilight deepened.
A slender form went out of the house,
and down the path, and through the
| gate. She did not look back. though
she knew she was going out for ever
1 She did not turn her white pinched
face upward for any starlight to bless.
| She walked with head bent down, cold
4 hnIf Il al IL
Sometimes she said over to herself
/ her name, Irene" and his name,
''Francis."
Dusk was fully come as she left the
road and went slowly down the rail-
road track towards the dark shadow
of the deep cut.
Into the shadow she passed slowly,
resolutely. "ntremblingly-
The train sped swiftly along. One
man sat with head thrown back and
eyes fixed upon the car-lamps.
.'It is quite dark by this time" he
said. 81 wonder if she is lonely. /
wonder if she has cried much, and if
she is wishing for me to come now.
/ shouldn't have written that letter.
But she'll forgive me. No; / was
! brute, ] suppose. Still she
made me SO mad And that Internal
suicide. She loved me very
| much; she must have loved me to go
with me. Well, it's all over now.
He's dead. Wen marry and she'll get
| over shedding tears and moping.
She'll get over it when her health Is
| better. / wish hadn't written
that letter. I'll not do it again. She
must have loved me very much. I
don't suppose, in her place, I'd have
do nd haQn
| very true and good to me"
There was a queer vibration of the
car. He stopped thinking and sat up.
| The train was coming to an abrupt
stop. This was not a station. They
were not yet at Westfeld. Had any
thing happened-any accidentP
The train had come to full stop.
1t was backing up now quite slowly.
He thought he would go out on the
i platform and see what the trouble was
or had been.
He shivered little atwhat he heard.
Someone walking upon the track had
been struck and killed.
By-and-by, after considerable delay,
he saw them lifting white mass and
| carrying it upon a stretcher.
They took it into the guards van.
| He hurried forward from his carriage,
as the train began slowly to move on
| ward.
| And now he shuddered more and
! more. For someone said: "a woman,
young and beautiful" And someone
else, "Mangledi No, not bleeding
much" And still another voice said,
yellow hair in curls, and slender
form"
He had reached the stretcher in the
guards van. He pushed through the
men who stood talking with Mortified
countenances; he reached out and
lifted the covering from the dead face.
''Merciful heayensp he cried thick
1y. s.Irenep and fell senseless beside
her.
| And so, and so the railway ghost
walks, ever sad and wan, below the
village in the deep railway cut, the
same on murlzy nights as when the
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